Update: I used this trick successfully. Here was my experience.

As I led a session at the Chicago Seminars this weekend on "Special Awards," someone chimed in with an intriguing tip:

There is a simple method to avoid the $75 "close in ticketing fee" on United awards that is triggered when you try to book a ticket within 21 days of departure.

I tested out the proposed method yesterday, and I have some input on how it works.

It is cheaper to book the exact same United flights to Hawaii with Singapore KrisFlyer miles than with United miles.

United charges 22,500 miles each way in economy and 40,000 miles in First Class between the mainland and Hawaii
Singapore charges 17,500 miles each way in economy and 30,000 miles each way in First Class between the mainland and Hawaii

That's a humongous difference. Instead of costing 90,000 United miles to get two people from your home airport to Hawaii and back, you could pay 70,000 Singapore miles.

Update 4/13/16: Expert Mode was down for weeks, but now it is up and working again.

United.com is the fastest way to search most Star Alliance award space. I frequently use the search engine even if I'm using another type of Star Alliance miles.

I often use the site's calendar to search two months of award space at a time on a single route.

On roundtrip United awards, you get one free stopover in addition to your destination and up to two open jaws.

Get 1,000 United miles just for signing up for MileagePlus dining. Get another 500 miles per qualifying restaurant visit in the next two months up to an additional 2,500 bonus miles.

These aren't huge miles, but they are easy to get, since signing up will just take a few minutes and is free.

Generous reader Caveman is donating two United Club passes that expire June 30, 2017–bout a year and a half from now–to one lucky winner.

United has lounges all over the world. The clubs are a pleasant place to relax in a comfortable chair, use free wifi, and enjoy free snack and drinks. Here are the amenities. One-time entry goes for $59, so this giveaway could be worth up to $118.

There are two ways to enter this contest:

Comment on this post for a chance to win the passes.

United.com was redesigned last fall. Most of the changes were neutral or positive, but one was atrocious.

Starting June 1, 2016, United will fly daily nonstop between San Francisco and Singapore.

This will be the first nonstop flight between Singapore and the United States since Singapore Airlines dumped routes to Los Angeles and Newark in 2013.

UA1 (flight #1? they must be proud): Depart San Francisco at 11:25 PM, arrive in Singapore at 6:45 AM +2 days
UA2: Depart Singapore at 8:45 AM, arrive in San Francisco at 9:15 AM (the same day)

That's 16:20 westbound and 15:30 eastbound.

You can already search award space on united.com.

Updated 1/27/16 because the offer ends tomorrow.

United has announced a 20% to 25% discount on economy class awards from the United States to Sydney, Australia:

Roundtrip awards booked between now and January 28, 2016
for flights flown between February 2 and June 22, 2016
on itineraries wholly operated by United and United Express flights
will cost only 60k to 64k miles roundtrip, depending on the days of travel

United has run nearly identical promotions for travel to Europe and South America for the last several years.
United’s Current Promotion

I did a few dummy bookings to test out what’s